You're Soooo Good Looking 

I always enjoyed Seinfeld, but it wasn't until I'd been at my last job that I really gained an appreciation for it. One of the guys there was a huge Seinfeld fan, and seemed to have an innate ability to take any moment and relate it to a Seinfeld episode. So as a sort of tribute to Jim...

I happened upon a rerun of Seinfeld episode where they talked about why you say "God Bless You" when someone sneezes. Jerry than comes up with the alternative "You're Sooo Good Looking". On that note, I've now been at my new client for a couple of weeks and have some utterly superficial observations to share.

My last client was a pure engineering firm. That means that I worked with a lot of engineers, all the time. Engineers were everywhere that you looked, except for the occasional marketing person, or technical writer. What's more... everyone wore the same ugly blue uniforms. As a single guy, it's kind of annoying. Engineering groups don't attract the honeys if you know what I mean... and the few women there were all married. Of course even the marketing groups weren't exactly bustling either. I attribute that directly to the uniforms. Whether conscious or not, I think attractive people enjoy showing off the fact that they are... well... attractive. Companies that have a dull blue uniform aren't going to be a magnet for those types of women.

My current client is an insurance company. Yes I work with a bunch of computer geeks... but surrounding me are a lot of non-geeks as well. Maybe its also the fact that I'm working downtown... I don't know. But for the last couple of weeks I've been treated to a lot more eye candy. Lots of attractive women in heels, nice skirts, or at the very least pants but with tight sweaters, and no ugly blue uniforms. The attractive women seem to like showing off the fact that they are attractive... especially the woman who sits across the aisle from me. Damn that wedding ring.

There's another thing I've been a lot more conscious of the last couple of weeks. Complete strangers here are willing to help me for no reason what so ever... which is a strange phenomenon for me. Allow me to explain. A while ago I remember watching a story on Dateline NBC where they surmised that people are more willing to help attractive strangers than less-than attractive strangers. They took some people from their office that fit a wide spectrum of looks (both men and women), and sent them off into the city with camera crews hidden nearby. Some would drop papers on the sidewalk to see if strangers would help pick them up. Some would ask for directions at a subway station to see who would give in depth instructions, and who would brush them off. It was quite amazing. People are much more willing to help attractive people... which I can attest to being on both sides of the fat/thin divide.

This morning is a perfect example. I went down to the vending machines to get a Diet Mountain Dew to supplement my morning coffee. I fed my money into the machine and hit each of the Dt. Mtn. Dew buttons only to have the red empty light flicker each time saying that it was empty. So I hit the coin return button only to have it not give me back my money. I stood there frustrated hitting buttons trying to get something for my $1.25 when a gorgeous brunette walks up and offers her help. After a moment she was hitting buttons for me... "Did you try this? What about this?" I didn't know what to say... this never used to happen to me before. I stood there partially frustrated, partially dumb struck as I thanked her for her help. After another minute of commiserating she walked to the elevator as I went to a vending machine guy to attempt to get a refund... which he wouldn't give me because he wasn't the vendor for the soda machines.

I'm not sure exactly what the point was to this post... maybe like Seinfeld, the so called "Show about nothing", this was a "Post about nothing". Maybe the value we place on looks is something we should be ashamed of as a society... or maybe it means you need to get off your ass and lose some weight. Personally I took the second route...